September 14, 2018 Comments (0) Views: 3530 Design, September 2018

Inside Ezoic’s Perk-Filled Office

When the Carlsbad-based digital marketing firm hits revenue targets, employees get to splurge on cool gear for the office

The newest member of digital marketing firm Ezoic’s fast-growing team is a five-foot-two Terminator statue ($1,400 with shipping and handling; still en route from Taiwan). The cyborg assassin will watch over the Carlsbad company’s employees as they blow off steam with a game of cornhole, air hockey, shuffleboard, or table tennis, relax in a beanbag chair, rev up with a cold brew coffee or kombucha, or watch as a freshwater pacu fish feeds with its humanlike teeth.

These toys were all purchased with “Perky,” an incentive program that rewards employees with $50 every time the company hits a revenue milestone. With 50 local employees and 25 off-site, it adds up. “In a month you could have $200 to spend,” says Tyler Bishop, head of marketing.

To date Ezoic has dropped $45,000 on art, bicycles, a weight room, deep-sea fishing outings, and charities like CropSwap. Employees nominate items they want on an internal website, where anyone can chip in. The only caveat is that the items must benefit the office as a whole.“The idea is to encourage people to work together and meet goals,” says Ohad Tzur, vice president of global business organization, who last worked at Google.

Employee freedom isn’t just limited to purchases.

“We don’t have set working hours or set days off. We give people a lot of autonomy and flexibility,” Tzur says. As of press time, they’re hiring software engineers and business development executives.

Workers are rewarded for a job well done.

When revenue milestones are hit, employees first receive an email from founder and CEO Dwayne Lafleur explaining how, then—cha-ching!—each employee gets $50 to spend on items in an online marketplace.

Ezoic workers pool their money for the greater good.

Tzur says that people feel more involved, being able to make decisions about their office culture in a more democratic way.

Everything’s on the table but piranhas and tattoos.

Early on, employees settled for pacu fish when they learned that its South American cousin, the piranha, is illegal in California. Only one item has ever been removed from the bidding process—a self-tattooing kit.